Ceiling collapses over autistic woman's bed at north Houston apartments

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A mother in north Harris County is cleaning up and sounding off after storms caused her ceiling to cave in. Her apartment complex is making repairs but the mother says that's not enough.

Jennifer Williams says she wants to provide her three daughters with a safe place to call home, but that dream literally collapsed around her girls Monday morning.

"When we walked in this morning, there was a gaping hole over her bed. It had fallen in, but the sheet rock was just angling," Williams explained.

In the room shared by Williams' daughters, ages 19 and 24, torrential rains went through the roof and soaked the ceiling, sending it tumbling down.

"I hear the rain, like it's inside the house. And then next thing you know, the roof falls," Jasmine Williams said. "We're in the room and I'm like, 'Get up, get up, we've got to get up.' And I'm feeling the roof is going to fall on us."

Jasmine was especially worried about her sister, who has autism and is non-verbal. Fortunately neither girl was hurt. But a lot of their belongings are now damaged by water.

"It was really traumatizing for us."

The family is worried about finding a new place to live. The apartment management wouldn't talk to us. Williams said she was offered to move to a temporary apartment while her unit is repaired. But she said her apartment already had problems with leaks and mold, and she would prefer a more permanent solution.

"At least just change us to another unit, because I don't think this is going to be a quick fix," Jennifer Williams said. "They're trying to repair that room with a sheet rock when it's clearly damaged all the way across with the apartment."